ABSTRACT
The obscurity surrounding the relationship between obesity and mood disorders exists despite growing research showing that both conditions are increasingly severe public health problems that significantly overlap in treatment-seeking populations. The degree, nature, and causes of this overlap between obesity and mood disorders in clinical populations are not understood. Epidemiological studies consistently find that obesity and mood disorders are each highly prevalent in the general population. To identify age-related developmental trajectories of obesity and their psychiatric correlates, S. Mustillo et al. evaluated 991 rural white children-ages 9 to 16 years from the Great Smoky Mountains area annually over an eight-year period for weight, height, and psychiatric disorders. In sum, the most methodologically sound clinical studies of mood disorders in obesity have found a positive relationship between obesity and both major depressive and bipolar disorders in females and males. Several of the cross-sectional studies explored correlates of overweight and obesity in mood disorder patients.
